first traffic lights as it pursues clear weapons. our alina cho is one of the few outside journalists allowed to look around, to film, and talk to people. she's going to be joining us live from pyongyang this morning. and super campaign cash. people and organizations are spending millions of dollars to try to influence your vote. and they're trying to do it without ever revealing who they really are. so where's all that money coming from? the best political team on television follows the money trail this tuesday morning. first up, it could be a matter of hours before the 33 trapped chilean miners are free. work crews have finished reenforcing a 2,000-foot-long escape tunnel with sheet metal. >> after four successful tests now, the rescue is set to begin in the next 18 to 24 hours, that's when a steel cage will hopefully take the men on a tight, twisting, 20-minute ride to freedom. karl penhaul joins us from chile this morning. and you can feel the

anticipation building here. >> reporter: well, john, we have been here for seven weeks now watching this rescue operation unfold. and i have never seen things moving as fast as they are now. look over my shoulder there where you can see the lights. and that is where the rescue, where the extraction point is going to be. and things, as you say, everything is a go. the steel encasing is in place, the cement platform, we're told the cement has dried. and then we saw video of one of those test runs of the phoenix capsule, a capsule that is going to haul these men back to the surface. and that was dropped down, right down to the depth of almost 2,000 feet. and you can see they've attached the camera on it as it went down that shaft. it's going to be a tight fit, but you can bet as each miner comes up that shaft, it's going to be the ride of their lives. >> what's left to do? what are they waiting for before they send that capsule down there, i guess, with a paramedic and another official in it and start to bring the men up?

>> reporter: yeah, in fact, what they've told us, there's going to be four rescuers lowered down before the miners are hauled up. that because of the volume of work. they don't want any last-minute hitches. and so their job down there in the mine is going to be to sort out these miners, to set up the batting order, which miner comes up first. and now in probably just a couple of hours from now, the miners will go on to a liquid diet that has been supplied by the nasa space agency. that's so they can get vitamins and proteins, but won't have solid foods, just in case that ride up in the phoenix capsule, if it does begin to twist and turn, so they don't get nauseous and also to help them against becoming dizzy and fainting in that capsule. they've got an enriched supply of oxygen in there and also have video conferencing system up to

the surface. so they're hoping all will go smoothly there, as well. >> well, the next 24 to 48 hours going to be pretty remarkable. karl penhaul, thanks so much. and in the next half hour, by the way, we're going to talk about the difficult challenges the miners will face once they are back on the surface. when we're joined by dennis o'dell at 6:40 eastern. cnn, is of course, the place to be when the big stories break. we'll have live coverage when it happens tonight and tomorrow right here on "american morning." to the most politics in the morning now and we're learning more about the man who threw a book at president obama over the weekend. the incident was caught on video at a rally in philadelphia on sunday. the secret service says the man was an over-exuberant author who was hoping to get the president's attention and have him read his book. they determined he wasn't a threat, though we haven't read the book, so maybe he is.

>> it's an odd thing to do. did you read my book? hey, i'll toss it at you. earlier they arrested another man, this guy was trying to run naked through the crowd. >> trying to draw attention to what? >> i guess himself. and he certainly did that. but the man was reportedly responding to a website that was offering $1 million in cash to the first person who could successfully streak in front of the president. no word on whether he'll actually get the money, but he did get something else, a charge of indecent exposure as well as public lewdness and disorderly conduct. >> i actually snort listening to that. on other news this morning. the alleged gunman behind last year's ft. hood massacre has a hearing in a military court. deciding whether there's enough evidence to put him on trial. we'll have a live report from chris lawrence in ft. hood coming up in our next hour. it's not clear this morning

whether mexican authorities are pursuing two suspects in the disappearance of an american man reportedly shot to death by mexican pirates on falcon lake. a spokesman from the attorney general's office in mexico says that two well-known brothers are the chief suspects in the shooting. another spokesman from the same office says there are no suspects. well, a medical breakthrough may have been discovered. a potential link between jaundice and autism. a new study suggests that newborns with jaundice are at a higher risk of developing autism. danish researchers found that jaundice babies were 67% more likely to be diagnosed with autism during early childhood. the study doesn't tell whether jaundice causes autism, instead it shows they are often found together. potentially not a cause and effect. but when you have one condition, maybe dwroup another. >> and often times, babies born

preterm tend to have jaundice more than others. and they also found that link. so obviously it's an area of intense interest for more people. hopefully they'll learn more. a rare sight on the streets of new york city. hail yesterday. it looked like an early snowfall in one brooklyn neighborhood with nearly an inch of hail on the ground. the storm also dumped heavy rain in some areas causing severe flooding in others, as well. it was quite a night. the lightning show itself was spectacular. >> did it keep you awake last night? >> it sure did. >> between that and coughing up a lung, didn't get a whole lot of sleep. it was so loud, in fact, you could hear it in atlanta. well, we're looking at more showers and thunderstorms at least this morning across parts of the tri-state area, especially in central new jersey. there were several counties yesterday that really got hammered with the hail, as you mentioned, some of it piling up in brooklyn. but new jersey, those counties had over an inch diameter hail

and same deal with nassau county. there's kind of a stalled frontal boundary that's wavering around. if you're heading to the area of the i-10 corridor, be aware of that. those are your daytime highs today. now, the other news this morning. the disturbance in the western caribbean has blown up into a hurricane. hurricane paula, 75-mile-an-hour winds, right now 279 miles south of cozumel, mexico and heading west. as far as the forecast track, i know folks who live in south florida are interested in that. we expect it to scrape the coastline of cancun and the eastern peninsula and hang out in the northwestern caribbean for a few days, maybe banging around western cuba. does it get into the gulf of mexico? if it does, there's a lot of dry air in there. i think the folks most threatened with this system in

the u.s. would be the florida straits in southern florida, but we'll have to wait and see on this. mother nature doesn't seem to know what to do with it. we'll talk about that later on in the program. john and kiran? >> and how are we describing the hail that fell in new york last night? >> well, 1 inch in diameter. somewhere between pea and golf ball. >> paint ball gun? >> maybe paint gun. it probably felt that way too. >> yeah, it does not feel good on the skin. >> if a quarter were spherical. thanks, rob. you remember oprah winfrey. >> i have a vague recollection of her. >> you remember when oprah winfrey came out to talk a lull bit about what happened at her school in south africa. well, now there's a verdict in the case of the woman who was accused of student abuse there. oprah not happy with this verdict. we're going to get more when we come back. 8 1/2 minutes past the hour. [ manager ] you know...

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been acquitted of child molestation charges. in a statement winfrey says she's disappointed in the outcome of the trial, but proud of the nine girls that testified. bring on the phillies, after the giants beat the atlanta braves 3-2 last night. it's the giants' first playoff series victory in eight years. so they're pretty thrilled in california today. they'll now meet the defending national league champion phillies in the nlcs game one in philadelphia on saturday. >> and with the braves' loss comes the end of an era. the end of a generation. their manager bobby cox retiring after an incredible 25 years. a quarter century as the team skipper. the crowd paid tribute to cox after the game, so did the giants who delayed their locker room celebration to stay on the field and join in the applause. >> nice and classy of them to do that. >> i remember bobby cox when he was managing the toronto blue jays.

>> it's a shame he couldn't have gone out on a win and continued a little longer, but -- >> well, if he'd gone out on a win, maybe they'd win the world series. >> maybe. >> what an amazing career. and we salute bobby cox. >> absolutely. schools in cambridge, massachusetts, voted unanimously to close their schools for one muslim holiday every year beginning next year. the vice chairman of the cambridge school committee says that christians and jews each have a holiday and it's only right to do the same for the muslim community. also requested a designated prayer area and have been granted use of the dean's office. well, coming up, new trouble in the housing market. major banks are freezing foreclosure sales amid signs people are being wrongly evicted from their homes. allan chernoff coming right up with an amazing story. [ male announcer ] sometimes after surgery straining should be avoided.

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welcome back to the most news in the morning. 17 minutes past the hour, we're minding your business now. and foreclosure sales are getting new scrutiny because of questionable practices by lenders that have allegedly caused struggling borrowers to be evicted from their homes. >> a cnn exclusive reveals another problem with the mortgage industry's foreclosure process. not only are the signatures on legal documents in question. in many cases, the documents themselves are not entirely factual. our allan chernoff has been investigating. and this whole thing is a real mess. >> it is a very complicated process, and that's the reason that the financial industry is able to get away with this. but very interesting angle we have here. the biggest mortgage lenders jointly own a company that allows them to manufacture documents banks need to foreclose on homeowners.

if the paperwork were entirely accurate, that might be okay. but, in fact, some of the documents are filled with made up details, allowing banks to expedite foreclosure. >> oh, man. >> reporter: she bought her dream home in new york four years ago. hard times hit and she fell into default on her mortgage. this summer, demilio filed bankruptcy hoping to avoid foreclosure. >> how important is it to you? >> outside of my children and my family, there's nothing more important. >> reporter: even though the company doesn't own her mortgage, fannie mae owns it along with millions of other home loans, yet fannie mae's name is nowhere to be found on the document citimortgage produced in the bankruptcy case. instead, the document states the mortgage was assigned to

citimortgage. her lawyer says the bankers are not following proper legal procedure. >> this is improper assignment of mortgage that's meant to shortcut the system. it's less about the truth and more about how fast can we get this property foreclosed on? >> reporter: citimortgage as the servicer of the loan says there's no foul play here, it's normal procedure. and fannie mae agrees, pointing out this is how it operates all the time. in fact, citimortgage owned the loan very briefly for only a couple of months back in 2006. the original lender home loan center sold the mortgage to citimortgage on november 3rd, 2006. the very day demilio borrowed the money. less than two months later, citimortgage turned around and sold that as an investment to fannie mae on january 1st, 2007. yet the assignment of mortgage

document stating they still own the loan is dated june 24th, 2010. that information on the document comes from a virginia company owned by citimortgage, fannie mae, and other big mortgage players. mortgage electronic registration systems. when banks sell mortgages, they use mers to keep track of the real owners. if a bank wants to foreclose, it simply turns to mers for the necessary documentation, much faster and cheaper than retrieving local title records. but the mers papers like those for the home sometimes don't reflect the true status of the mortgage. >> we're seeing forgeries, we're seeing back datings, post datings. largely because lenders are scrambling to come up with a chain of title that mers was

ill-equipped from its inception to provide. >> mers says it helps the process work better because it technique of tracking mortgages and holding title provides "clarity, transparency, and efficiency" to the housing finance system. but several recent state court decisions have ruled against mers serving as a nominee for the actual mortgage owner and ordering documents tailored for a foreclosure. >> so we understand she's challenging the filings. what does that mean for her potentially? >> well, it does mean that the homeowner probably will be able to stay in the home longer. i mean, ultimately, this may not save the homeowner, but it certainly can delay the process very much. and there are a growing number of legal challenges on this very angle. a lot of homeowners are beginning to realize. hey, wait a minute, not all the documents have the right dates. not all the documents are entirely accurate. and so they're using that now in the courts to fight back. >> yeah. they're actually fighting the foreclosure process too.

we saw bank of america too freezing all the foreclosures across the country. >> right. well, the other banks, so far what they've announced, that has more to do with the documentation being notarized properly, being reviewed properly. but here it's the actual documents that are in question. and this clearly could be a growing problem for the banking industry. >> wow. as we said at the beginning, a real mess out there. a lot of people being unfairly targeted. allan chernoff, great investigation. coming up next on the most news in the morning, inside north korea, a cnn exclusive. a place infamous for labor camps and propaganda. but would you believe it has an amusement park? alina cho is going to take you there. it's 22 minutes after the hour.

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back now to the most news in the morning. cnn exclusive at 25 minutes past the hour. it's a rare look inside north korea, the politics, the pageantry, and the propaganda. as a nation closed off to the world for 60 years opens up just a little to introduce a new dictator to the world. and our alina cho is one of the few foreign journalists invited into the country this week. >> reporter: good evening once again from pyongyang, we are live outside north korea's most famous monument. an enormous statue of kim il-sung, the founder of north career. for all the circumstance we've seen over the past several days, what we really wanted the know

how is how do average north koreans live? it is hard to get a true picture, our movements are tightly controlled by the government. and remember, this is a communist country. but having said that, there have been remarkable signs of progress. your eyes are not deceiving you. this is communist north korea. the newest attraction this western-style amusement park. there's a ride called power surge. and take a look inside the food court, you'll find western fair. this family comes here often to unwind. he says words cannot explain the excitement after working so h d hard, general kim jong-il has given us this park to relax. we really love it. if north korea is stalin's last playground, this is its version of disneyland. not far at this outdoor food

market, they're serving up more traditional fair like soybean pancakes, and people are paying like their enemy neighbors in south korea, north korean currency is also called the wan. that will get you two sweet potatoes, one ticket to the amusement park or a hot dog at the food court. in the two years since i last visited north korea, i've noticed some changes. for one, more average north koreans speak english. >> do you like coming here? >> yes, very much. >> reporter: for the first time, there are traffic lights installed this spring. most notably, in a country closed off to the rest of the world, north koreans are now talking on cell phones. this girl says everyone in her family has one. but international calls are forbidden. word is, punishable by death.

in that way and others, time stands still. we can only see what our government minders want us to see and undeniy bli, it's north korea's best face. many live in poverty, there are very few cars. in this city, there's no such thing as a traffic jam. this is pyongyang's subway station, one of two main hubs and one of the main forms of transportation for average north koreans. many don't own bikes let alone cars so this is how they get from point a to point b. and today the trains appear to be running on time. and many travel on foot, on the streets, there are no ads. just propaganda. and listen. they not only see the message, they hear it. north korean propaganda songs blaring across pyongyang.

so look at what we happened upon here. you know, we're in the middle of week-long celebrations here in north korea commemorating the 66th anniversary of the workers party of north korea. this is how people are celebrating. they're literally dancing in the streets. it's possible they're also celebrating the choice of their next leader, kim jong-un, son of the ailing dictator kim jong-il. for all the small changes we've seen, the larger question remains, will a change at the top affect the average citizen? for now, north korea remains sealed. and in a place where there is rarely any descent, we have learned tonight that the eldest song of kim jong-il has spoken out against the heir apparent, the chosen one in an interview in japan, jim jong-nam says he opposes the line of succession

here in korea. but he says he will not fight it and will even help in any way he can. john and kiran? >> that's amazing and also amazing to get an inside look, like you've been able to show us over the past few days. thanks so much. crossing the half hour, time for this morning's top stories. 33 trapped chilean miners could be free by this time tomorrow. work crews have successfully tested a 2,000-foot tunnel and could begin lifting the miners out by midnight tonight. wall street on track for a record payday. according to the "wall street journal," three dozen firms are set to pay $144 billion in compensation and benefits this year. that's a 4% increase from 2009. wall street revenue is also expected to rise to $448 billion despite a slowdown in activities like stock and bond trading. and in hungary, the chief executive of the aluminum company involved in last week's toxic sludge spill has been arrested. he's accused of public endangerment and harming the environment.

hundreds of people have fled in fear of a second wave of toxic waste with a dam at the same plant on the brink of collapse. and to politics, the tens of millions of dollars being poured into these final critical days before the midterm elections, and the money from outside groups are trying to sway your vote. according to opensecrets.org, republican groups have already spent $108 million, democratic groups have already spent $69 million. >> our senior congressional correspondent dana bash is live for us in washington. and the big question today is whose money is this? >> you know, for the most part, john and kiran, we just don't know. you've heard the president lately step up his complaints about karl rove's group and the chamber of commerce for attacking democrats without disclosing donors. but both sides are doing it as you pointed out. it is republicans, though, that have the most cash this year. and it is for the most part anonymous cash. >> we're doing far more than we've done --

>> reporter: embattled 14-term democrat says he's never had an election quite like the one now. not his opponent. >> this is an organization that's truly shadowy. >> reporter: a third-party republican group running this ad. >> boucher has failed to protect our jobs, now it's time rick boucher loses his. >> reporter: americans for jobs security is responsible. you know who they are? >> we have no idea who these individuals are. this could be a foreign entity. it could be someone who has a corporate identity in the united states. it could be a very wealthy individual who has some grudge against me. >> reporter: americas for job security is one of those outside groups likely benefitting from a supreme court decision, which on free speech grounds said corporations can spend unlimited money to promote or defeat candidates without disclosing donors. it does have this website, which says it promotes free market ideas and its more than 1,000 members, businesses, business leaders entrepreneurs from

around the country. but also bluntly states it won't disclose donors. only one full-time employee, steve demora. now, we left multiple phone messages for him to try to get more information about his group. and we never heard back, so we came here to his office, knocked on the door, and we were told he wasn't there. >> because of the type of group that they are, you don't know if that's one american for job security, a million americans for job security. >> reporter: what we do know with the help of the non-partisan opensecrets.org is americans for job security has spent nearly $8 million against democratic candidates nationwide. tim phillips with americans were prosperity, another gop group, did talk to us. >> by the time we reach election day, how much will your group have spent? >> this year we'll have spent around $35 million. >> reporter: that money funds ads like this. >> to small businesses -- >> reporter: who are its donors, the texas billionaire coke

brothers are the group's founders and give significant dollars. besides them, who knows? >> most of it is private individuals, but we're glad to have their support. and we're going to tell them, look, we're going to protect your privacy as the law allows us to do. >> and that is the key thing to remember about this. it is legal for these particular groups to spend tens of millions to affect elections without anyone knowing who's funding them. the supreme court when they made the decision earlier this year left it in congress' court to fix. legislation to do that was blocked in the senate. we should point out that as you noticed today we focus on republican outside groups, but there are democratic groups pounding gop candidates too. they're not as well funded, but they're out there and we're going to look at the democratic side of the equation tomorrow. john and kiran? >> and the center for defense in politics does a great job of trying to track that campaign cash. but even it has its limitations. >> exactly. this is your job, even you can't help us try to figure out who

these donors are? and they said, our hands are tied, it's the law. >> dana bash, thanks so much. in the final weeks before the election, both democrats and republicans are trying to convince voters they're part of the solution to america's economic problems. >> last night on "parker spitzer" the two talked about the documentary "inside job" about who's to blame for the financial crisis. >> what i really loved about this movie was it helped me understand the complex series of events. but what really struck me was, and you can't blame only republicans, can't blame just democrats either. you can't pin it on president bush or president clinton. and it didn't matter who controlled congress, it's just a story of run away greed, of a relatively small number of people who nearly destroyed our financial system. >> the only thing i'd say it's all of the above. it was president bush it was also president clinton and the folks around him. the fed, the s.e.c. everybody bought into this notion that wall street could just make everybody rich. but you know what they did? they made themselves rich and we

are poor. this is one big ponzi scheme because we had to bail them out. and they kept all the money and gave nothing back to us. and that is what is outrageous and has people really angry. >> you can watch "parker-spitzer" weeknights here on cnn. the rescue operation to free 33 trapped chilean miners could get underway. they've been trapped underground for 69 days now. they'll face a lot of challenges, many of them emotional once they're freed. we'll talk about that next with dennis o'dell. 36 minutes after the hour. see wg for the community on a day-to-day basis. natural gas is cleaner burning than most fossil fuels and it's vital to our energy needs. increasingly we're finding gas in hard to reach areas, but now we've developed technology that enables us to access gas in hard rocks so we can bring more fuel to homes and help provide a reliable source of energy into the future.

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it's 40 minutes after the hour now. 33 trapped chilean miners could be reunited with their loved ones by this time tomorrow. rescue crews are set to lift the men out by midnight tonight. even if all goes well, the ordeal will be far from over. joining us live with the challenges facing these men after the crisis is over, is dennis o'dell. he's in charleston, west virginia for us. dennis, great to see you. these miners have been in terrific spirits for 69 days, particularly considering their ordeal. but you have some concerns for them? >> yeah, i do. you know, there's going to be a lot of things that the miners

have to go through. initially what you're going to have to worry about is the immediate health effects that you have to watch as they bring them out through the capsules. that capsule is so enclosed, it's like 28 inches and it'll sp spin. so those are the things you have to worry about immediately as far as the health issues go. and then there's the mental part of it. you know, there's going to be separation anxiety because it's going to be the first time they're actually away from the rest of their group that they're with. and they have to contend with that. and then, of course, we all know once they get outside, you know, that's when the big changes start. the big worries start. >> that's an interesting aspect. they've been separated from their families for more than two months now, but you say they may

have separation anxiety when they're separated from their fellow miners. what about reintegration into society? chile's president says there may be problems on that front. >> well, because these guys have become immediate heroes throughout the world. and that's something they're going to have to deal with. and it's going to be tough for them to reunite with their families. all this attention they're going to get, it's going to be tough to deal with. and it's going to be tough to blend back in. and you've got to think about weeks from now, they've got to figure out this is how i provided for my family. this is what i did for -- and do i really want to go back in a mine? a lot of these guys because of the ordeal they've been through, they're -- you know they don't want to go back underground and figure out where they go from this point. >> yeah, that area of the country, there's not a whole lot of employment around other than the mines. there's not a whole lot else around there. so unless they want to move to a bigger town or maybe, you know,

santiago or something like that, they would have to go back in the mine if they want to continue to provide for their family. that would have to be a really tough decision. >> it will be a tough decision. and some of them won't be able to handle that. some of them may be able to go back underground and then, i'm sure, a majority of them may not want to. and they may have pressure from their family members to not go under too because you've got to realize the emotions they put their loved ones through. so they're going to get pressure from them, don't go, don't go. >> well, in your experience here in the united states, miners who have been involved in accidents, did they want to go back into the mine? do they have personal feelings about it? or succumb to family pressure? >> you know, i've seen both, it's a mixed bag out there. i've seen miners go through such trauma that they won't go back underground. i saw it happen at the jim walters explosion, we saw it at upper big branch, you know, some

of those that got out. some of them will go back, some of them won't. it depends on the individual. >> as a point of reference, the creek mine the disaster back in 2002 where the miners were trapped underground and lifted out with a similar capsule to the one they're going to be using there in copiapo. what i think is so incredible the miners have asked for shampoo and clean clothing, which they're going to get, and, as well, they want some shoe polish because they want to make sure they present themselves the best they can to their families. that's incredible, you think they'd be like, get me out of here, but no, we want to look neat and presentable to our families. >> you know, people don't realize miners are a prideful bunch. they really are. it's family-oriented ordinary guys, but they are concerned, you know, that they present themselves well. that's throughout any cold mine or any gold or copper mine anywhere.

miners throughout this world are like that. and they like to be able to present themselves, you know, properly to people. doesn't surprise me. >> just amazing. and this will be an incredible story unfolding over these next 48 hours. dennis o'dell. thanks so much. >> good to see you. thank you. >> kiran? still to come on the most news in the morning, rob marciano will be along with the travel forecast right after the break. he'll let us know what it's looking like across the country. also keeping an eye out for another storm, paula. still ahead. 45 minutes past the hour. tinted moisturizers, with scientifically proven soy complex and natural minerals give you sheer coverage instantly, then go on, to even skin tone in four weeks. new aveeno tinted moisturizers.

welcome back to the most news in the morning. as we know they deep fry about everything at state fairs. now they're upping the ante as well as the calorie count with the krispy kreme cheese burger. started out at a minor league ballpark snack in georgia, then made the state fair rounds, and for sale in downtown des moines, iowa, $5, 550 calories without the chocolate covered bacon. >> 550 calories is not bad. >> it's not telling the whole story, though. i'm sure the salt content and the fat content is a little high. >> a lot of those calories will be made of fat, but i've seen burgers 1,300 calories.

>> comparatively speaking, that's healthy. >> compare it to a funnel cake, as well. weather headlines, rob marciano in the extreme weather center. would you eat a burger with a donut for a bun? >> no, but it doesn't surprise me that that concept was born here in georgia. we take pride in stuff like that. guys, listen to this, hurricane paula. this thing flared up yesterday, quickly became a tropical storm. and hurricane hunters out in the past 18 to 24 hours now. it's heading towards the yucatan peninsula, northwesterly moving at about 10 miles an hour. waters here are really toasty. so we do anticipate some further strengthening, but the further north it goes, the more it gets into those westerly stronger jet stream that happens this time of year. here's the forecast track. we've taken it to a category one status. we bring it to about cozumel during the day tomorrow and late tonight and scrape the coastline of cancun.

it could make landfall directly and get into the yucatan. and then it gets caught up in the westerlies a little bit and gets kind of suppressed down below all the heat and the high pressure that's been in control of the north. looks like it wants to hang around here. this is going to be a dicey forecast. i'll tell you this. we'll be watching that very, very carefully. and it's in the same spot that wilma developed back in 2005. showers and thunderstorms across the northeast today. shouldn't be quite as severe and rough as last night. yesterday evening was something, wasn't it? and new orleans you're seeing thunderstorms. metros will see a little bit in delays as well as detroit, cleveland, and denver with low clouds. we saw record highs from san francisco to louisville, to d.c. yesterday. we'll see slightly cooler weather today, but the unusual warmth continues. john and kiran? >> i felt bad for those people trying to fly back to the northeast last night. i bet they were frustrated. >> it was quite a light show. >> it sure was a little scary out there last night. thanks, rob. well, this morning's top

stories just minutes away. including counting the days and months. now they're counting the minutes. final preparations underway to rescue the 33 trapped chilean miners. and we're live at the mine with the latest. plus a mind-blowing medical breakthrough. a real rip van winkle story. a baby born 20 years after he was conceived. keeping embryos on ice and the ethical questions that's raising. those stories and more beginning at the top of the hour. world. ♪ airplanes that fly cleaner and farther on less fuel. and make nonstop travel possible to more places. ♪ [ female announcer ] around the globe, the people of boeing are working together -- to bring us together. that's why we're here. ♪

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coming up on five minutes before the top of the hour. welcome back to the most news in the morning. more than 1 million americans are living with hiv. in the black community, many times the stigma of the diagnosis means hiding it or in some cases not even knowing. but for one man, living with hiv the courage to open up cold change things. here's soledad o'brien. >> reporter: two illnesses threaten jeffrey gavin. his church knows only about one. >> i have -- that makes me very tall, i'm constantly in pain. >> reporter: he feels compelled to tell his pastor the rest of his story. >> i'm living with hiv. >> reporter: jay gavin as his friends know him found out he's hiv positive four years ago. he's never mentioned it in

church. keeping that kind of a secret is common in the african-american community. >> if the average person in this church knew how many people they interacted with in this church who were hiv positive, it would be scandalous. >> reporter: the cdc says it's the stigma in the african-american community that's putting many blacks at higher risk of contracting the disease. nearly half the people living with hiv in the united states are african-american. gavin is gay and contracted hiv from sex. but the message he wants to send to his community is anyone can get it. >> thank you so much. >> well, thank you for this. >> you look so relieved. >> i am -- i want to shout for joy. because i see the avenue that this is leading to.

>> reporter: gavin sees himself as an ambassador, leading open discussions. but his pastor has a more tempered response. >> whether or not he is a symbol of something that can be healthy for the church and inspiring for people who are hiv positive, i think, that remains to be seen. >> reporter: regardless of the outcome, gavin says he'll keep pushing. reporting for in america, soledad o'brien, somerset, new jersey. >> jay gavin is also a member of first baptist church of lincoln gardens and that church has the focus of almighty debt. the church has fought for civil and human rights and now waging a war on debt. and you can watch the special thursday, october 21st, 9:00 p.m. eastern right here on cnn. top stories coming your way right after the break. three minutes now to the top of the hour. sorry i'm late fellas.

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good morning to you. thanks so much for being with us on this tuesday, it's october 12th. i'm kiran chetry. >> i'm john roberts. thanks so much for being with us. this could be the last night of captivity for 33 trapped chilean miners. stuck underground for 69 days now. testing on a 2,000-foot escape tunnel has been a rousing success. and they're just about ready to go. we're live in chile this morning where by this time tomorrow all of the men could be back on the surface in the arms of their loved ones. ruled by a dictator, shrouded in secrecy, a rare glimpse inside north korea. a place that only got its first traffic lights as it pursues nuclear weapons. our alina cho is one of the few outsiders allowed to look around and talk to people. live from pyongyang this morning.

a hearing today in a military court. officials will determine whether major nadal hassan will stand trial. a live report from chris lawrence in ft. hood just ahead. 69 days they've been trapped understood ground, the 33 chilean miners could be rescued, though, by this time tomorrow. work crews have finished reenforcing an escape tunnel. >> after four successful tests, the rescue is set to begin sometime in the next 18 to 24 hours. a steel cage will take the men in a tight twisting ride to their freedom. karl penhaul live this morning from copiapo, chile. and i imagine the excitement is about to build there because they're about ready to launch this. >> reporter: well, absolutely, john. and as we're speaking, the sun is just rising over this mountain. just on to my left. and it's amazing to think that after 69 days possibly some of

these miners are going to see sunrise tomorrow for the first time in 69 days. it's just an amazing thought to me. but, yes, all systems are now go. that steel tubing, encasing is in place. the cement, a platform at the top of the rescue shaft has now dried. and we've seen that test of the phoenix capsule, the rescue cage, as well. pretty dramatic pictures there as we saw that slide right down about 2,000 feet. had a camera attached. but that has allowed the engineers to test the integrity of that tunnel and they say it is a. okay. they say there are no chance of rock falls, they say that the phoenix capsule is performing really well. all systems are go. really what they need now is the president to arrive. also we're told that maybe the bolivian president will be here, as well. all along, the chilean president has said that as each of those miners comes out of that hole,

he wants to hug each one personally. and we could be seeing that some time tonight and the wee small hours of wednesday, john. >> so many preparations underway, karl. it seems they've planned for everything. not only physical extraction, but also the mental aspects, as well. and when you talk to the families, what are they feeling right now as the rescue seems to be imminent? >> reporter: absolutely. i mean, everything has been meticulously planned for the last phase of this operation, kiran, right down to the fact that in a short while the miners will be going on to a liquid diet supplied by nasa so they don't get nauseous or dizzy on the way up. but yeah, you're right, there's been a human drama down half mile deep through all this time. but the other part up here on the surface with the family. and i can tell you, i've been here, we've been here at cnn for about seven weeks now, and it's inevitable in that time you get

to know the families, get to make friends with families because here in the desert where this golden copper mine is, it's a frigid place at night. so we've spent many hours huddled around campfires with these families. they've literally got nowhere to go. and last night there were a lot of hugs and tears. we've all realized this might be the last time that we see one another together because from now on, things are going to be very fast-moving. and one of the ladies, you know, she hugs me and said, you know, i don't know what to feel right now. she says i don't have any words to describe these kind of emotions because i've never felt these kind of emotions before, she said. she said she was anxious, she said she was stressed, she said she was nervous, but she was also overjoyed. and i said to her, well, you know, there is no word because you haven't been through this experience. those miners have never been through this experience before, this is uncharted territory. don't put a name on it. you've just got to go with the emotion today.

and it is going to be a long haul for a lot of these families. but we know that the eyes of the world are on this too. 1, 500 journalists from 39 different countries. a lot of people communicate with me via facebook and twitter. and there's a lady in texas who says every night she goes down to her church and gets the priest to light 33 candles. a lot of eyes here, but our thoughts with the families and the miners. >> you're right when you say it's captured the world's attention and now as we're getting closer, everybody wants to know that these men will indeed get out okay. karl penhaul. thanks so much. when the big stories break, cnn is the place to be. we'll have live coverage of the dramatic mine rescue when it happens tonight and tomorrow morning here on the most news in the morning. also new this morning, president obama is promising to get to the bottom of a failed rescue attempt by u.s. special forces that ended in the death of british aide worker linda

norgrove. prime minister of britain says she may have been killed by a u.s. grenade. both agree the rescue mission was the right move given the grave danger to her life. well, from bond girl to stocks and bonds girl, anna chapman, the accused russian spy has got herself a new gig working for a russian bank. fsb, the same initials as russia's main spy agency. coincidence? she caused a stir last week when she showed up at the launch of a russian rocket carrying an american crew. the bank, which funds aerospace projects says that she was there as a "adviser." well, the disgraced former citi manager of bell, california, had his huntington beach house tepeed. rizzo is facing 33 corruption counts and a scandal. accused of ripping off more than

$5 million from taxpayers. >> that goes to show you what those municipal government salaries will buy you -- >> that's right. >> when, you know, spent correctly. let's get a quick check of this morning's weather headlines. good morning, rob. >> good morning, it is t.p. season, i guess, we're getting close to halloween. at least they picked the right month. don't get any ideas when you come to my house on the 31st. hurricane paula, that's going to continue for the next month and a half, the hurricane season. and this time of year, the northwest caribbean is the spot if it's going to threaten the u.s. and this one will eventually threaten the u.s. right now at 75 miles an hour, it's going to affect the yucatan peninsula. moving that way at about 10 miles an hour. here's the forecast track from the national hurricane center. maybe a little bit of strengthening moving to the north and kind of meandering around the western tip of cuba. if it gets into the florida straits, it would be a stronger storm. so we're watching for any indication that may happen.

showers and thunderstorms across the northeast today after a rough night last night and record highs yesterday. we'll see a few more. look at san francisco, 91 degrees. that's toasty for this time of year. that's the latest from here, guys. yeah. if you're coming to my house, trick-or-treat, leave the toilet paper at home. >> you're springing for candy this year? >> yeah, every five years we do it. >> you've just guaranteed yourself that you're going to get t.p.ed, right? >> in my neighborhood, it could happen any night. well, a paperback flyer on the campaign trail, someone throws a book at president obama. the person in the end meant no harm. it's eight minutes after the hour. everythinge do it's a yea 50 milpromise. wi complenta schemaintee and /7 roaide assiance. beusen y ce the st bif, faaronar

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minding your business this morning and give me a break happy birthday to the kit-kat bar, turning 75 years old today, launched back in 1975 in the uk. estimated the world eats 564 kit-kat fingers every second of every day. >> i used to throw them in the

freezer. they'd go nice and cold. the world's largest retailer, walmart, may be selling the ipad soon. don't expect walmart to roll back the price of the popular tablet computer. the ipad will still start at $499. well, christine romans is here minding your business this morning. and he's got a look at -- >> the best jobs in america. cnnmoney.com has done a fantastic set of lists. best pay, best availability, best jobs overall in america. we've been talking about all of the gloom and doom of the jobs drought. but there are areas where there are great pay and jobs available. and i wanted to give you where the best pay is. this is available on cnnmoney.com and they break down the lists in a lot of different ways. if you're curious about where you fit or where your kids should be getting trained, i suggest you walk over there and take a look. 45% of highest paid jobs are in health care. also, boys and girls, we're adding a lot of jobs. be careful where you're getting jobs in health care, because there's a big divide in the

best-paid jobs and least-paid jobs. sales lawyers and management, got to work your way up the ranks. management consultants, in fact, are among those people who are paid quite well. what are the top jobs in each of these industries? number one, anesthesiologist. $290,000 -- i just had a baby. i paid that bill, i'm sure that guy made $290,000. >> you're so happy to see the anesthesia. >> oh, yes, please, please, come back again soon. >> the product management director, $148,000, these are just a few we wanted to show you. software engineer makes $144,000 a year. sales director makes about $142,000, and an attorney makes about $118,000. it depends on what kind of field you are, where you are in with different jobs. what we do know and something i've talked to you before, when you're telling your kid how to get trained and what kind of education to have. be careful, a lot of the engineering fields pay very, very well.

a lot of these health care fields pay very, very well. but you have to be careful where you choose. and sometimes when i do these stories, i get a lot of e-mail and a lot of feedback from people who say, you know, that's great, that's really great. but we have 20 million people in this country who need a job right now and aren't necessarily going to be an anesthesiologist overnight. >> that takes a substantial amount of time. >> it does. but gives you a snapshot of some of the best jobs in america with, of course, the understanding that we need to do a lot more work to get jobs for everyone else there too. so look -- take a look at cnnmoney.com. good stuff there. >> good luck getting that epidural. >> yeah, exactly. someone threw a book at the president while he was speaking on a campaign speech. find out why the secret service says that the person meant no harm. to do that so well. ♪ ♪ where'd you learn to do that so well. ♪

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welcome back to the most politics in the morning. crossing the political ticker now. americans giving members of congress a thumbs down. >> our senior political editor mark preston live at the cnnpolitics.com desk. and mark, as we like to say around here, the best surprise is no surprise, right? >> the best surprise is no surprise, john, you're absolutely right. look, democrats haven't had a whole lot to crow about in this new cnn opinion research poll they may not want to crow that much. but when asked about how democrats are handling their jobs in congress, they polled a little bit better than republicans. 34% of americans say that they approve of how democrats are doing their job in congress. when asked the same question of republicans, americans only say 31% of republicans are doing or 31% of americans believe their republicans are doing a good job. so is this good news for democrats? well, of course not. look at those numbers, a little more than 3 in 10 americans are

actually saying something positive about what's happening in washington. and when we asked on specific issues, such as terrorism and health care and immigration and most importantly the economy, republicans have come up on top on every one of those issues. of course, very critical heading into the midterm elections. you know, kiran, you were talking a little bit about that book-throwing incident. you know, about president obama's rally up in philadelphia. well, if you see this video, you can see the president talking, of course, this was his big rally in philadelphia. he's trying to really get the democratic base fired up. well, a book came flying by him. not sure how close it actually got to him. in fact, he didn't even know it was coming. the secret service were able to detain the man. they have not charged him. what they described him as was an overzealous author. they let him go, no charges. we'd have no other information about this gentleman. they haven't said what the book was about or what his name was. but i guess the big question is.

would he been better off throwing it at oprah or president obama? isn't oprah the one who makes authors? i'm not sure about that. >> definitely. considering that the president didn't even see it go by him. it was a misplaced toss to begin with. >> yeah, terrible. if the president would've caught it and said, oh, "how to win friends and influence people" maybe it would have helped. at least it wasn't a shoe. >> he could've read it on the way back home from philadelphia and back to d.c. cnn exclusive this morning, inside north korea. a place infamous for labor camps and propaganda. would you believe it's got an amusement park? alina cho is going to take you there this morning. 20 minutes after the hour. because of one word, a new generation-- a fifth generation-- of fighter aircraft has been born. because of one word, america's air dominance for the next forty years is assured.

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welcome back to the most news in the morning. 23 minutes past the hour right now. we have a cnn exclusive for you. a rare look inside north korea. the politics, the pageantry, and, of course, the propaganda. >> a nation closed off to the world for six decades is opening up, well, just a little bit to introduce a new dictator to the world. our alina cho is one of few foreign journalists allowed into the country this week. she joins us now live from pyongyang with a look at north korea you might not expect. good morning, alina. >> reporter: good evening from pyongyang, john and kiran. you know, for all the pomp and circumstance that we've seen here in north korea over the past several days, what we really wanted to know is how do average north koreans live? now, remember, it's hard to get

a true picture. our movements are tightly controlled by the government. and this is a communist country, after all. but having said that, we have seen remarkable signs of progress. your eyes are not deceiving you. this is communist north korea. its newest attraction, this western-style amusement park, and it's packed. there's a ride called tower surge. and take a look inside the food court, you'll find western fair. this family come here often to unwind. he says words cannot explain the excitement. after working so hard, general kim jong-il has given us this park to relax. we really love it. if north korea is stalin's last playground, this is its version of disneyland. not far at this outdoor food market, they're serving up more traditional fair, like soybean

pancakes. and people are paying, like their enemy neighbors in south korea, north korean currency is also called the wan, but this money features a hammer. that will get you two sweet potatoes. one ticket to the amusement park, or a hot dog at the food court. in the two years since i last visited north korea, i've noticed some changes. for one, more average north koreans speak english. >> do you like coming here? >> yeah. very much. >> reporter: for the first time, there are traffic lights installed this spring. most notably, in a country closed off to the rest of the world, north koreans are now talking on cell phones. this girl says everyone in her family has one. but international calls are forbidden. word is, punishable by death. in that way, and others, time stands still.

we can only see what our government minders want us to see and undeniably, it's north korea's best face. many north koreans live in poverty, there are very few cars. in this city, there's no such thing as a traffic jam. this is pyongyang's subway station, one of two main hubs. and one of the main forms of transportation for average north koreans. many don't own bikes let alone cars, so this is how they get from point "a" to point "b," and they appear to be running on time. and many travel on foot. on the streets, there are no ads, just propaganda. and listen -- they not only see the message, they hear it. north korean propaganda songs blaring across pyongyang. so look at what we happened upon here. we're in the middle of week-long

celebrations here in north korea commemorating the 65th anniversary of the workers party of north korea. this is how people are celebrating. they're literally dancing in the streets. it's possible they're also celebrating the choice of their next leader, kim jong-un, son of the ailing dictator kim jong-il. for all of the small changes, the larger question, will the change at the top affect the average citizen? for now, north korea remains sealed. we are standing in front of north korea's most famous monument. an enormous statue of kim il-sung, it is a very holy place, even at this time in the evening, there is music, people lay flowers, they go right up to the statue and bow. it is almost like being in a cathedral in a country, john and kiran, where there is no organized religion.

>> an interesting look this morning. alina, thanks so much. and right now, we're crossing the half hour. time for a look at our top stories. 33 trapped chilean miners could see freedom by this time tomorrow. work crews have successfully tested a 2,000-foot tunnel and could begin lifting the miners out by midnight tonight. are you having financial woes? you'll want to pay attention to this next story. wall street on track for a record payday according to the "wall street journal," about three dozen firms are set to pay. here's the figure -- $144 billion in compensation and benefits this year. that's a 4% increase from 2009. wall street revenue also expected to rise to $448 billion despite a slowdown in activities like stock and bond trading. tracking tropical storm paula, now a hurricane after gaining strength near mexico's yucatan peninsula overnight. the storm is about 230 miles

south-southeast of cozumel, mexico right now. a hurricane warning has been issued. it could be headed toward cuba later in the week. major nadal hassan, accused of opening fire on fellow soldiers at ft. hood last year is about to face his victims in a military court. >> a hearing begins today to determine whether enough evidence exists to put hasan on trial. he's charged with murdering 13 people and 32 others who survived that massacre will be sitting a few feet away from him in the courtroom today. chris lawrence is live in ft. hood, texas, this morning. he joins us on the phone. chris, tell us more about what is happening today. >> reporter: yeah, kiran. right now we're just now driving on to the ft. hood base. a lot of extra security. you know, we've spoken to about a dozen people when we got here

a couple of days ago. and a lot of us telling us they're looking forward to this being over. one of the m.p.s on base told us, you know, hey, nobody likes it when hasan comes on base. we do our job, of course, we protect him. but we want this man to go away. we also spoke with the fiance of one of the most seriously wounded soldiers. this was a young soldier who had just got back a couple days ago from fighting in iraq. he was only a few days away from leaving for officer candidate school. that's why he was in that building when hasan was shooting that day. she told us based on everything that she's gone through and the other families, a lot of them want to be here to face him in court. >> we all cope in different ways. and, you know, i know in my situation i just like to know all of the facts as i can get them. and, you know, for me, i'm anxious for the article 32 to begin. so the public can start seeing

some of the facts of what really happened that day and, you know, what led up to that day. and you're going to hear more stories about just how selfless those 13 people were and how many heroes are among the wounded. >> reporter: yeah, as for hasan himself, he had been held in a county jail nearby. he spends most of the day either sitting in a chair or in bed. he's got a tv and a koran in his cell. john, kiran? >> how much of the case is going to be presented today? what's the exact procedure to determine whether or not he can face a courts martial? >> what we're going to hear is that the prosecutor's going to lay out the what. they're going to talk about how he allegedly went out and bought these weapons, went to a local gun range to practice his aim, and how he carefully planned this attack. what they probably won't get into is the why. his motivation, his alleged links to terrorist organizations overseas. they probably will not get into that until the actual court

martial. so based on what we talked to with some of the families, they want to hear, not only how he planned this, but sort of what his motivations were. we may not get those answers in this hearing, john. >> chris lawrence watching it for us in ft. hood, texas, today. chris, thanks. less than a month left before the midterm elections and president obama is trying to fire up his own party now. but how much trouble could the democrats be in this year? especially if their base is not as fired up? well, we're going to speak to the syndicated columnist and the founder of a progressive blog about why they feel that in many cases the president let them down. 32 minutes past the hour. [ male announcer ] the next big thing from lexus is not a car.

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politics in the morning. how do you inspire the base that helped propel you into office? it's proving to be a bit of a challenge for the obama administration with just three weeks to go now until the midterm elections. the president's been hitting the campaign trail. he's trying to fire up the crowd and rekindle the the excitement from two years ago. >> our victory in that campaign, that wasn't the end of the road. that was just the beginning of the road. that was just the start of the journey. by itself, it does not deliver the change that we need. on november 2nd, i need you as fired up as you were in 2008. >> well, the president has good reason to be in all-out campaign mode. the recent polls show republicans with a 20-point lead when it comes to voter enthusiasm. what happened to all of those fired up democrats from two years ago? our next guests say that the

president flat out failed to deliver what he promised and they're both democrats. syndicated columnist david serota joins us from denver. thanks to both of you for being with us. >> thank you. >> jane, let me start with you. conventional wisdom, of course, is that the president's party always seem to lose. but personally speaking, what has the president done or not done that's let you down? >> well, i think that one of the things that people are seeing is not that he failed to do things, but that he claimed to support things and his actions didn't match up with his words. for instance, he's promised on many occasions to end don't ask, don't tell. and congress has not been cooperative on that front. but as commander in chief, he could suspend the discharges under don't ask, don't tell right now. and we've had joe biden who has been saying well, we can't suspend them because we traded that away for the votes in the

senate, but it didn't pass the senate. so people are going, wait a minute, you said you had the votes and you don't and you said you could do this, but you're not. what's really going on here? and i think that's caused a lack of trust. >> another thing, david, it's interesting, though, the president has taken a lot of political heat. he's seen his poll numbers drop for supporting things that progressives and liberals are in favor of. things like the health care reform and the bailout. isn't he between a rock and a hard place because of this? because some of the things you want him to go further with he's losing support for doing. >> well, i don't think that progressives and liberals are for -- were for the bank bailout and i don't think they were for the health care bill as it was constructed. >> well, let me clarify about the -- about the bailout. there were a lot of -- of economists like paul krugman and others who say he didn't do enough, it should have been bigger, the stimulus should have been bigger. i understand what you're saying that you weren't happy that the bailout had to happen, but felt that more government intervention was better.

>> well, yeah. i just want to make a distinction. there was the bank bailouts and then the stimulus. those are two separate things. i think the progressives have said about the stimulus it didn't go far enough, it wasn't big enough to make the right economic impact. i think that people think the health care bill didn't include key provisions that would've actually made the health care bill actually work in a lot better fashion as opposed to being a pretty big give away to the insurance industry. so my point here is only that the president has put forward big ideas, but i think it goes back to whether he's going to and whether he did legislate them in the precise way, in the precisely progressive way that he said he would. and i don't think that he has. there was no public option. the wall street bill got watered down. the bank bailouts were, frankly, big give aways to the banks. and so, i think, that again -- that they were not structured in a way where he looked like he tried, where he effectively tried to legislate them in a progressive way. >> jane, in some cases, though,

isn't it ideas versus reality? he would've wanted a public option. but in some cases, it might not have gotten through the congress because of democrats who weren't necessarily supporting a public option. >> well, i believe that's the line that they tried to peddle. but this last week we saw tom daschle give an interview for his new book. that says that the white house traded away the public option very early in the process in 2009, long before it ever hit congress. and so, again, people are going wait a minute, the president was saying as late of september he supported a public option but actually already traded it away. so it didn't really have anything with how anybody in congress felt. and so that's the problem that we're getting to. if you look at the hispanic vote, it's actually shifted weirdly, almost 20 points towards the republicans since july. and that's not because they think that the republicans, the party that passed the immigration bill in arizona, you know, represent our great champions of, you know, hispanic

issues. it's because they believe that the president was not honest with them. and, you know, despite the fact that he says, yes, i'm for immigration reform, deportations are actually up significantly under obama than they were with george bush. so there's a lack of confidence going on. there's a gap between action and rhetoric. and people are nervous. the stimulus bill. people argue whether it's big enough or small enough, but the fact is that we have a very bad jobless crisis right now. we've got a foreclosure crisis and the president hasn't articulated a clear message that people feel they can have confidence in order to be able to go to the polls and say, yeah, this is what i want for my life. >> and david, where does it leave people like you who would rather see the obama administration in power and democrats in control of congress than having anything be seeded to the gop? when you hear things like buck up, stop whining, some of the things on the campaign trail that joe biden has said. does that inspire you to go

vote? or does that annoy you? >> well, i think it's perplexing. i think if you yell at people and you tell them in the middle of the worst recession in the country's contemporary history to stop whining, i think that shows how out of touch this white house is. i think there may be a triangulation strategy here. i think the white house may be politically calculating that it can bash its own base and that's somehow a way to get republican or independent voters. i don't think it will work, i think it's a mistake. i think the best way for the obama administration to go about motivating people is to say, listen, we didn't do enough, we're going to try harder, and that's why you should elect democrats. unfortunately, that's not the message right now. >> mark halper has said the white house is in over its head and clueless about how to bring everyone together. this is an article he wrote saying this isn't just the opinion of the republicans, but democrats, as well. jane, in your opinion, has it gotten that bad in a way with

people who supported the president so unabashedly in 2008 feel this way now? >> well, as you said, there always is an enthusiasm gap in a midterm election. but i think one of the things mark halprin referred to is the left is a bunch of people nobody's ever heard of. but in reality, there's tremendous tension between the dnc and dccc and the dscc who feels the dnc is focusing on obama 2008 surge voters that will help obama in 2012 that may not be the best use of their efforts. in 2010, when they should be turning out the traditional midterm election voters. that, you know, they really need to turn out and are much more likely to turn out. so there's a lot of sort of war within the democratic party about how to, you know, deal with this election right now. >> david, just quickly. what's the one piece of advice if they were listening this morning at the white house you have for them? >> concede that everything is

not perfect. concede that they made mistakes, that they frankly didn't try on certain issues and go to voters and say they will try, they will succeed, they will make an effort if voters elect democrats. don't just bash democratic voters and tell them they're whiners. >> great discussion this morning. thanks for being with us. >> thanks. >> thank you. hurricane warnings are up in mexico including some tourist hot spots. is the state of florida next? rob marciano's got hurricane paula's latest track right after the break. plus, it's as though as an embryo traveled through time. a woman has given birth to a healthy baby boy from an embryo kept frozen for nearly 20 years. what implications does this have for the future? we'll talk about that coming up. 44 minutes past the hour. we know why we're here.

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rough weather last night across the big apple. check it out. hail in brooklyn. enough to cover the street and sidewalks in spots. parts of new jersey saw hail as big as an inch in diameter. so rough stuff this late in the year. it's unusual. certainly for new york city. and we do see some showers and maybe some embedded thunderstorms here in the next couple of hours. but for the most part we don't expect the activity we saw yesterday across the tri-state area including south philadelphia. some rough weather moving across southern louisiana right now. but this is also beginning to weaken. the big story probably was the record heat in louisville,

kentucky, chattanooga, 89, san francisco 86, d.c. saw 86 yesterday, and atlanta, georgia, tied a record of 86 degrees, as well. remember, we are now into the middle of october. and it may very well be 91 in san francisco today, 95 in phoenix, 84 degrees and stormy in new orleans and 82 degrees in d.c. october is still hurricane season. and paula is our ninth hurricane of the season. winds of 75 miles an hour, it's about 200 miles south of cozumel, moving that direction, north/northwest about 10 miles an hour, we do anticipate some strengthening, the waters are really warm here, but the further north it gets, the more westerly wind shear will tear it apart. if this thing becomes stronger than a category one, it will likely go closer to florida, but stays weak, and that's the forecast it stays south and all bets are off at that point. you're up to date weather wise. "american morning" is coming right back.

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♪ 53 minutes after the hour. time for your "a.m. house call," stories about your health. used to be something you read about in a novel. now it's a journal. a healthy baby boy born from an embryo frozen for almost 20 years. two decades between conception and birth. joining us now is dr. jacob mayer, the co-author on the study at the east virginia school of medicine. great to talk to you this morning a. lot of people might wonder. you know, you had an embryo fertilized in 1990 in your program. you had a couple that came along, wanted it. why use a 20-year-old embryo

opposed to something that was newer? >> well, actually, the number of embryos in storage is limited and so patients often will look for the best match, best physical match for themselves, so we give them a list of embryos we have with the general characteristics and they choose from that. we'll tell them about how long it's been in storage and give them the information and the patient makes the choice based on what's available. >> so this embryo was almost 20 years old. first thing out of people's minds this morning, when's the risk of a embn embryo frozen fo years? >> actually, of course, this is all new. ivf itself is only a few decades old so the real risk we have to tell patients, there may be unknown risk but we felt pretty confident about it because 2008 we published a paper on over

11,000 embryos that have been frozen and stored. look at the impact of storage on those and saw no real impact at all with the viability or the ability to produce a pregnancy or the health of the offspring so we felt very comfortable with that. >> great. now, the baby was born back in may making it about 5 months old. the mother wants to be anonymous. tell us a little bit about her story. you know, what type of person was she? how long had she been trying to conceive? >> well, actually, the patient was 42 years old when the transfer was made. and had what's referred to as low ovarian reserve and very few eggs left in her ovaries and the chances of a child were slim with her eggs so for that reason she chose to go ahead and the options that couples have at that point are either do something with eggs from a

younger woman, an egg donation or in this case she chose to go with embryo donation si. >> is there a limit of how long a embn embryo can be stored? >> that's a difficult experiment to do. 20 years. remember that the freezing of any type is only started to occur in 1970s. human embryos in the 1980s so we really -- 20 years, 20-some years is the longest we could have had something in storage at the moment but in theory looking at it, these embryos frozen and stored at minus 321 degrees farn hitd and there are no driven reactions. all of the reactions are essentially frozen in place. it's really a state of suspended animation. >> so then what are -- >> in theory it should be hundreds of years to keep them. >> what then are the implications for the future? i know that egg freezing is popular, as well.

>> absolutely. >> can you have a situation of a woman 30 years old and decides to freeze embryos or eggs and two generations later along comes a great great child infertile and could use the eggs so the great grandmother could provide the material for her own great, great, great granddaughter? >> well, i think there are all kinds of things that i'm sure there will be plenty of writers and people that write -- do movies coming up with scenarios. the reality is most of the embryos frozen, most of the material that's frozen is used relatively quickly, within a couple of years for the patient's own use and the primary purpose of all of this, remember, is for their own fertility treatment. and that's for the vast, vast majority. 90-some percent of everything is actually used in the patient's own treatment. >> then at the same time you had one hanging around for 20 years.

i guess anything is prosossible >> we did. probably getting more and more as time goes on. >> congratulations. >> thank you so much. >> top stories coming your way right after the break. self doin, one month, five years after you do retire? ♪ client comes in and they have a box. and inside that box is their financial life. people wake up and realize i better start doing something. we open up that box. we organize it. and we make decisions. we really are here to help you. they look back and think, "wow. i never thought i could do this." but we've actually done it. [ male announcer ] visit ameriprise.com and put a confident retirement more within reach. everythinge do it's beln it's a yea 50 milpromise. wi complenta schemaintee and /7 roaide assiance. beusen y ce the st bif, faaronar

good morning on this tuesday, october 12th. thanks so much for joining us. i'm john roberts. >> i'm kiran chetry. midnight tonight the rescue could start in chile. people are watching across the world. 33 miners trapped could be freed by this time tomorrow. their escape tunnel is tested. everything checks out. rescue effort could begin as we said midnight tonight. we'll get a live report from chile just ahead. something to consider making ends meet in the difficult economic times. despite reform, the economic downturn and all of that, wall street salaries on track to

reach a record high. so just how big is the expected payday? we're live with new details. and a rare look inside north korea. alina cho takes us there. >> reporter: he says words cannot explain the excitement after working so hard, general kim jong-il has given us this park to relax. we really love it. >> it's an amusement park with a few things that might surprise you. onion rings, burgers, last holdouts of the east. could be the last morning spent underground for 33 chilean miners. they've reinforced the escape tunnel with piping. >> the rescue is set to begin in 18 to 24 hours. karl penhaul has the latest from copiapo, chile, this morning. >> >> reporter: good morning.

we are here seven weeks a innoceand in that time, we have never seen preparations move as fast as they are now. the lights, as the dawn breaks here over the desert, that shows that the rescue crews have been working around the clock. they have not stopped. and today is no different. but we're told that now all systems are a go. steel casing to reinforce the rescue shaft is now in place. a cement platform above the rescue shaft has now dried. the winch systems are in place, as well. the phoenix capsule, a cage to pull the miners one by one back to the surface is tested, as well. we have seen dramatic video of that sliding into the rescue shaft with a cam are attached and that the technicians say show that it's solid. that the phoenix capsule is operating well. it means around midnight

tonight, tuesday, into wednesday, the first of those miners should be back to the surface. before they come up, of course, four rescue experts, two rescue experts, two paramedics will slide into the hole with the miners and set up an order deciding which of the 33 comes up first. in a few hours from now, as well, before all this unfolds, the miners put on a special liquid diet supplied by the nasa space agency. vitamins and proteins and hopefully the doctors on the surface say prevent them from getting nauseous on the ascent and hope to avoid any problems with dizziness. for that reason, the miners will get a 40% enriched supply of oxygen. but the engineers, the rescue experts, the government say all systems are now go and now we could be in a position that by

the next sun rise many of those miners are back on the surface. john, kiran? >> we certainly hope so after two months of being trapped underground, the real test for the 33 coal miners could come in the next several weeks after they've been rescued and most of them are unaware of the challenges they'll be facing. joining us now on the phone from florida, robert hogan, president of of hogan assessment systems. thank you for being with us, robert. >> my pleasure. >> you have worked with the navy for personality tests for people who have been stationed in isolated environments. of course, just getting out is going to be a huge feat for the men. what will they be dealing with in the weeks and days following their release? >> well, people's reactions to stressful events depend on the people entirely. 30 guys down there, i would imagine for 5 of them, as soon as they get on top, take a shower and have breakfast, they will be on their way. for five of them, the other end,

probably find -- this will be something to bother them for a very long time. for most of the foeblgs in the middle, good to go after a couple of months. >> it is interesting. one of the things they want to do i guess the psychology team is advising that they will meet with one to three people, close family or friends who the miners have designated personally. they don't want a big crowd and even though we have seen the pictures of family members out there. why is it important to have the first meeting after escaping be with such a small group? >> i think this is part of the media package. i don't think there's a psychological reason for it. >> really? >> it is a media frenzy there. >> doesn't matter a hoard of people greeting them? or one or two loved ones? >> it could be a media frenzy and want that under control. >> all right. you say that doesn't have anything to do with what they're facing emotionally?

>> no, uh-huh. >> military people are trained for this. civilians, not so much. i understand that the miners would at least have some comfort level with being in tight and enclosed spaces but in terms of everything to deal with not knowing whether they would survive this, how do all of those factors play out after they're finally up from the surl fast? >> confined and remote location isn't that but lack of predictability and control. you have to rely on other people and just hope and that's very stressful. >> now, is the physical and mental health of them when they're underground, does that sort of determine how they are when they get up and we have heard some of the men held it together better than others. understandably, it's a stressful situation and some have been ill or suffering physically and then others have been suffering mentally underground. >> yeah. just once again, people are really quite different. they will be for a few people this will not have been a big of

a deal once they're out and on their way and for others, people are susceptible to stress. >> thanks for joining us this morning. we appreciate it. >> my great pleasure. bye-bye. >> when the big stories break, cnn's the place to be. the miner rescue here. we have new developments in the tropics. paula a category 1 hurricane. rob marciano at the hurricane headquarters. where does it look like it's going? >> yucatan peninsula. potentially towards cuba and potentially towards southern florida. the latest advisory has a clock at category 1 storm and winds of 75 miles per hour. less than 200 miles now of cozumel, mentixicmexico, direct. here's the forecast track from the national hurricane center. category 1 status. maybe strengthening here 24 to 36 hours and then further north, running into dry air, westerly

winds, probably keep it below 2 strength. stronger than we think, then it will likely go further north in this track. shows you. so that's the general worry right now. back home, we have got some showers and storms that rocked new york city last night. they're moving offshore a little bit. not nearly as turbulent after the light show and hailstorm last night. there you go. there's some of that hail in brooklyn. covering the streets and sidewalks in some cases. on top of that, record-breaking heat. unusual october to say the least so far and looks like it continues for a couple of days. john and kiran? >> hail in brooklyn. lightning. it was crazy. >> quite a storm. i wish i was there. >> jets-vikings game delayed for an hour and a half and poor people trying to get home by plane. oh my goodness. >> the jets won so i'm sure most of them were in good spirits. >> there you go. to the most politics in the

morning, now, learning more of a man that threw a book at president obama over the weekend. it was a rally in philadelphia sunday. service says the man was just an overxub rant author hoping to get the president to read his book. he was detained by secret service agents. >> as rob pointed out, maybe he was better off throwing the book at oprah than the president and not only thing keeping officers. there was a man trying to run through the crowd naked. reportedly he was responding to a website offering $1 million cash to the first person who could successfully streak in front of the president. no word yet on whether he'll get the money or if the offer was legitimate. he did get charged with indecent exposu exposure, disorderly conduct and paraded through the crowd in handcuffs it with the full monty. >> people aren't looking at him. they're still looking at the president or wherever they are.

>> political rally. naked guy in the crowd, you know? >> like new yorkers. you just -- people walk the street. doing anything. people don't notice. brett favre reached unchartered territory last night throwing the 500th career touchdown pass. >> not that one. >> that was the pickoff, right? >> that was a touchdown pass. >> not for him. that was for the jets. all right. that's terrible of us, though. it was the big shining moment and we showed the flub. anyway, he still couldn't shake the questions about racy text messages he allegedly sent to a jets host eass a couple of monts ago. they say favre apologized for bringing unneeded attention to the squad and avoided questions about the scandal. >> do you suppose somewhere on the great system of servers and video we actually have the long bomb he threw to moss? >> want me to reenact it?

>> yeah. reminder of that bill cosby skit. you go long. remember the philadelphia area school district accused of spying on students through school-issued laptop web cams? the school is trying to make amends. that story coming up next. how smart is the new ford edge? well, it can show you the most fuel-efficient route to where you're going. it can find the best price on gas. show fuel prices. and now its v6 gets the best highway fuel economy in its class. say hello to the new ford edge. quite possibly the world's smartest crossover. [ male announcer ] there is nothing more profound than hope. it is the promise that compels us to make the journey from wonder to discovery.

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well, doctors in atlanta are attempting to treat a partially paralyzed patient with human emb embryonic cells. also, in santa monica, california, researchers hoping for the approval of the fda to begin injecting stem cells into the eyes of 12 patients who have mack lar dystrophy to see if the sight can be restored. >> wow. now they're doing experiments on humans. pretty remarkable. a school district accused of spying on kids via web cam settled two lawsuits for for than $ 600,000. they admit to captured thousands of streen shcreen shots and sai a misguided effort to locate

missing laptops and that are sorry. closing the cools in cambridge for a muslim holiday each year begins in 2011. the vice chairman says that christians and jews have a holiday and that it was only fair to offer the same to the muslim community. muslim students requested a designated prayer area and granted use of the dean's office. thinking about the next thing could make you faster. the christie cream cheeseburgerer. a burger with doughnuts for buns. mow about that? des moines, iowa. $5, 500 calories. you can see that's a plain doughnut and burger. the sauce and you're getting up there. >> i think they stole it from the mcgrid p. sweet and salty. >> i have heard of that before. it started in georgia.

i think. >> yeah. >> home of krispy kreme. put it together with a burger. it's become the rage of state fairs across the land. have that with your funnel cake. payday on wall street, for sure. salaries on track to reach a record high for the second year in a row. christine romans breaks it down for us. client comes in and they have a box. and inside that box is their financial life. people wake up and realize i better start doing something. we open up that box. we organize it. and we make decisions. we really are here to help you. they look back and think, "wow. i never thought i could do this." but we've actually done it. [ male announcer ] visit ameriprise.com and put a confident retirement more within reach. ♪ uh oh. sorry, son. you still have too many of 'em. [ female announcer ] you can't pass inspection with lots of pieces left behind. that's why there's new charmin ultra strong. its enhanced diamondweave texture is soft and more durable versus the ultra rippled brand.

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little led zeppelin matched up there. >> like it. >> 19 minutes after the hour. bond girl, you remember the girl sent packing. she's got a new gig. working for a russian bank. fsb which just happens to have the same initials as russia's main spy agency. >> back on track. the disgraced former city manager of bell, california, had the house teepeed sunday night. police say he was not home when vandaled littered the property with toilet paper.

not just haphazardly but long stripes there. rizzo's facing 53 criminal counts in a corruption scandal. he and others are accused of ripping off more than $5 million from bell taxpayers. turning out to be another great year for workers on wall street. according to "the wall street journal," three dozen banks and security firms paying employees 4% more than they did last year. 4% doesn't sound like much, right? >> it adds up to $144 billion in compensation and benefits. christine romans joining us live minding your business. people love to hate wall street. good that people are making money. it is just that it seems a very, very small tiny portion of people making money. >> and a lot of money. >> $144 million in pay and compensation with benefits, up 4% as you pointed out and would be another record. here's what's happening. banks and the financial firms are borrowing money at very,

very, very low interest rates and using it in the businesses and new areas making money and global international financial markets that have begun to heal and there's some opportunities there so what's it going to look like? 4% to $139 billion, that's billion with a "b." you look at revenue. a lot of times big banks talk about it and the financial firms talk about revenue. this is going to be 30-some percent of the revenue to pay workers. in 2009, $433 billion. this year, $448 billion. very detailed analyst of "the wall street journal." we have a couple of months until we know what bonus season looks like but the journal going over the documents and thinks this is what it's going to be, a new record. >> a couple hundred bucks in everybody's paycheck? >> no. the way the pay is structured is you eat what you kill. that means, the revenue you bring in, you get a big chunk of

that and that's how you get paid. you don't know until the end of the year. you get a salary, nominal and then the end of the year when the big payday comes because you get paid for what you do. >> right. there's talk about how the wall street system is centered around high risk because you have to take big risks and you have to take big risks to get money. >> right. >> there's talk about whether or not that would change. >> many people say it's a peak, near-term peak in pay right now because many of the firms coming out from under treasury department ruls and the rules not implemented yet and this could be the end of the big paydays and going forward seeing more static levels. >> how much of what they bring in do they keep? >> 30% to 40%. used to be higher than that. a couple of years ago the 36%. banks say we used to give much more to the workers which

encourages risk take but they're slowly ratcheting it down. eat what you kill. the wl wall way. >> this could be the last year to see this. >> i never count out wall street pay. you show me the rules, the regulations and i will never count out wall street pay. >> what do you think the top check written is for? >> tens of millions, no doubt. tens of millions. >> wow. thanks. >> that wasn't on your list of best jobs? >> that person probably brought in, you know, $20 million, $30 million, $40 million in pure revenue. >> thanks. >> sure. the gap, scrapping the new logo design after people on social media totally smashed it. the gap going back to the classic design for more than two decades. facebook fans saying that it was just a publicity stunt. the new coke, old coke. >> i like the old gap better. >> new and old tropicana. >> it was very confusing. didn't know where to find the

orange juice. >> looks like the most generic of generic versions. >> kept the little orange. >> you have to look hard for it, though. we are taking you live inside north korea. it is a place infamous for labor camps, the propaganda. would you believe it has an amusement park? what else has changed over the years? our alina cho takes a look. (announcer) everything you need to stretch out on long trips.

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27 minutes past the hour. top stories just a couple of minutes away. first a "a.m. original," something you'll see only here. a rare look inside north korea. >> and in the middle of all of the politics, the pageantry, the propaganda, who knew that there was an amusement park in north korea? alina cho was allowed into the country and joins us live from pyongyang. an amusement park? >> reporter: hard to believe, john, but as one of our

government guides said, seeing is believing. and that's certainly true. you mentioned the politics, the propaganda. certainly the pageantry. that's been incredible but for all of that, how do real north koreans live? remember, it is hard to get a true picture. our movements are tightly controlled by the government. and this is a communist country. but having said that, we have seen remarkable signs of progress. your eyes are not deceiving you. this is communist north korea. its newest attraction, this western-style amusement park an it's packed. there's a ride called power surge and take a look inside the food court. western fare. this family comes here often to unwind. he says, words cannot explain the excitement. after working so hard, general kim jong-il has given us this

park to relax. we really love it. if north korea is stallen's last playground, this is its version of disneyland. not far at this outdoor food market, serving up more traditional fare like soybean pancakes and people paying like the enemy neighbors in south korea, north korean currency is called the yuan but with a hammer and sickle. 100,000 is $1. that will get you two sweet potatoes, a ticket to the amusement park or a hot dog at the food court. in the two years since i last visited north korea, i have noticed some changes. for one, more average north koreans speak english. do you like coming here? >> yes. i very much. >> reporter: for the first time, there's traffic lights installed this spring. most notably, in a country

closed off to the rest of the world, north koreans are talking on cell phones. this girl says, everyone in her family has one. but international calls are forbidden. word is punishable by death. in that way, and others, time stands still. we can only see what our government minders want us to see. and undeniably, it's north korea's best face. many live in poverty, there are very few cars and in this city, there's no such thing as a traffic jam. this is pyongyang's subway station, one of two main hubs. and one of the main forms of transportation for average north koreans. many don't own bikes or cars so this is how they get from point a to point b and today the trains appear to be running on time. and many travel on foot. on the streets there are no ads, just propaganda.

and listen. they not only see the message. they hear it. north korean propaganda songs blaring across pyongyang. look at what we happened upon here. this is commemorating the 65th anniversary of the worker's party of north korea. this is how people are celebrating. they're literally dancing in the streets. it's possible they're also celebrating the choice of their next leader. kim jong un song of kim jong-il. for all the small changes we have seen, the larger question remains -- will a change at the top affect the average citizen? for now, north korea remains sealed. and we are standing in front of north korea's most famous monument, an enormous statue of

kim il-sun, the founder of north korea. even at this time in the evening, people come, they lay flowers, go right up to the statue and bow. there is music playing here 24 hours a day. seven days a week. it truly is a reverential place like a church, john and kiran, in a country where there's no organized religion. >> terrific look at the country and a side we have never seen before. thanks. >> thanks. 32 minutes past the hour. a look at the top stories. 33 trapped chilean miners could be freed by this time tomorrow. workers tested a tunnel and could begin lifting them out by midnight tonight. in hungary, the chief executive of the aluminum company involved in the toxic slublg spill accused of public endangerment and harming the environment. hundreds of people fled in fear of a second wave of waste.

with a dam at that same plant on the brink of collapse. also, tropical storm paula, hurricane paula after picking up strength overnight. the storm's about 230 miles south-southeast of cozumel, mexico. a hurricane warning is issued for the mexican coast. paula could dump up to six inches of rain over eastern honduras, northern belize and yucatan peninsula before heading to cuba later this week. the army's psychiatrist accused of opening fire at ft. hood last year will face victims in military court. >> a hearing begins today to determine whether there's enough evidence to court-martial him. he's charged with murdering 13 people and 32 others will be sitting a few feet from him in the courtroom today. chris lawrence is live from ft. hood, texas, this morning with more on what's happening there. hi, chris. >> reporter: hey, kiran. yeah.

right now they're shutting down part of this area for security sweeps because we're told hassan will be brought into the courtroom here in the next few minutes possibly. you know, we spoke with the military policeman yesterday who said no one likes it when hassan comes on base. he said, privately, he said, we protect him. we do our job and we really want him to go away. there's still clearly a lot of very, very raw feelings here about what happened last year. we spoke with the if ifiancee of of the most seriously wounded soldier. he was on the way to an officer candidate school. processing through the center on the day of the shooting. she talked to us about why so many of the families want to be there, want to tell their story and why so many of the survivors want to be in that room to confront hassan. >> we all cope in different ways and, you know, i know in my

situation, i just like to know all the facts as i can get them and, you know, for me, i'm anxious for the article 32 to begin so the public can start seeing some of the facts of what really happened that day and, you know, what led up to that day. you will hear more stories of how selfless the 13 people were and how many heroes are among the wounded. >> reporter: prosecutors expected to lay out the what and the how. by that, i mean, they're going to describe, you know, how hassan went about buying these guns, how he allegedly went to a practice range to improve his aim and how he carfully planned the attack. they're not going to get into the why. this is not the full court-martial. this is the hearing to decide if there's enough to go forward with that. we won't get too much into the motivations, alleged links to islamic radical groups overseas so the bigger question is still going to be out there, whether this was a workplace shooting

that happened to involve an american soldier or if this was truly a terrorist act. kiran? >> all right. well, at least the process under way, thanks. dozens of new political ads popping up on television screens across america. with three weeks to go until the elections but the big question who's behind them? dana bash following the money trail next.

welcome back to the most politics in the morning. tens of millions of dollars

poured into the final critical days before the election. the money coming from outside groups trying to sway your vote. >> according to opensecrets.org republican groups spent $108 million. and democratic groups spent $69 million. our senior congressional correspondent data bash is live in washington. dana, not so much of a surprise spending all that money but where it's coming from. >> reporter: and the answer is for the most part, john and kiran, we don't know. you heard the president step up complaints of karl rove's group american crossroads and chamber of commerce but hardly the only ones. both sides are doing it and just that republicans have a lot more cash this year, anonymous cash. >> doing far more than we have done. >> reporter: embattled 14-term democrat rich baucher said he's

hefr had a group like this running this ad. >> he failed to protect our jobs. now it is time he loses his. americans for job security is responsible for the content of this advertising. >> reporter: americans for job security is responsible. you know who they are? >> we have no idea. this could be a foreign entity. it could be someone with a corporate identity in the united states. it could be a very wealthy individual who has some grudge against me. >> reporter: america's for job security is an outside group likely benefiting from a supreme court decision which on free speech grounds said corporations can spend unlimited money to promote or defeat candidates without disclosing donors. it has this website saying it promotes free market ideas and more than 1,000 members are businesses, business leaders and entrepreneurs from around the country and also bluntly states it won't disclose donors. republican sources say americans for job security has one full-time employee, steve

demorro whose offices are here ini avirginia. we tried to get more information about the group and never heard back and came here to his office and we were told he wasn't there. >> because of the type of group that they are, you don't know if that's one one american for job security, a million. >> reporter: what we do know with the help of open secrets.org is the group spent nearly $8 million against candidates nationwide. tim phillips with americans for prosperity did talk to us. by the time we reach election day, how much will your group have spent? >> this year around $35 million. >> reporter: fundsing ads like this. >> to small businesses, the same as nancy pelosi. >> reporter: the texas billionaire brothers give significant dollars. besides them, who knows? >> most of it is private individuals but we are glad to

have support and we do tell them we'll protect your privacy. as the law allows us to do. >> reporter: and that's a key thing to remember about this. it is legal for the particular groups to spends tens of millions of dollars to affect elections without knowing who's funding them. we should point out that obviously today we focused on republican outside groups but there are democratic groups pounding gop candidates across the country. they're out there and taking a look at the democratic side of the equation tomorrow, john and kiran. >> spending, what, about two thirds of what the republicans are spending? >> reporter: enthusiasm gap, seeing it in a big way across the spectrum. cash is really reflected in cash, as well. >> dana, thank you. following extreme weather. hurricane warnings in parts of mexico. is florida also next when it comes to the path of paula? rob marciano will the hurricane

track after the break.

all right. check it out. that's not snow. that's hail and it is in new york city. and brooklyn. in it middle of october r. you kidding me? hail in some spots, both sides of the river. or the harbor. seeing hail in diameter of up to an inch and jersey. that was some storm in the big apple last night.

lesser storms expected today but nonetheless there are a few showers that are rumbling across the area right now. the heat, louisville, kentucky, saw 90. chattanooga, tennessee, 89. san francisco, 86. atlanta tied a record high of 86 degrees, as well. this is the middle of the october. that was columbus day, yesterday. 82 expected in d.c. today with showers. 91 potentially a record in san francisco. let's talk tropics. hurricane paula, winds of 75 miles per hour. about less than 200 miles south of cozumel. not a very big storm. winds out about ten miles from the center and battering the eastern shores of the yucatan here over the next 36 thundershowers and that would include cancun. here's the forecast track. we bring it to category 1 sta s status. if it gets any stronger than that, it gets caught up in the deeper layer of the steering winds and maybe towards florida.

here's where the uncertainty is and it does include parts of the keys so watching this very, very tricky forecast and potentially powerful storm here moving north towards the gulf of mexico. that's a quick weather update. "american morning" is coming right back.

♪ 51 minutes past the hour right now. welcome back to the most news in the morning. dr. sanjay gupta brought us inspiring stories for "the human factor" and this morning he profiles a boston college football star who's defied the odds, beating cancer and getting back on the playing field. ♪ >> reporter: as he leads his team on to the field, you can see it. mark, number 94, is fierce. he's dedicated. he's a doe voted team player. >> you know, football is really my life blood to be honest right now. >> reporter: few things have ever stood in this linebacker's way. not the 0 poe innocents or the

cancer. >> my whole left leg was white meaning there's a tumor around the femur. >> reporter: the former defensive player of the year developed a pain in the leg that simply wouldn't go away. many doctor visits later, he was given a devastating die no sis, a rare, often deadly form of bone cancer striking 1 of every 600,000 people. >> i went from when am i playing football again to when do i start treatments, what's chemotherapy like? am i going to start? >> reporter: he started a rigorous therapy. raid yoigs before and after every chemo visit. the motivation always being to get back to playing football. >> i knew that if i got back on the field, then i would have come full circle, beaten the cancer and gotten the physical strength back, to be where i want to be and once again, you know, be happy doing the thing i

love to do. >> reporter: that internal drive, it's what helped him mount a triumphant return. now, he's cancer free. he's back to playing football this fall. and football fans, young and old, well, they're celebrating with him. >> you know, we love everything about mark up here in these stands. >> you can do incredible things as a human being. you know? you can defie the odds. even if someone says you won't make it, you can push yourself and have that will to get there and i got there. >> reporter: dr. sanjay gupta, cnn, reporting. >> very fortunate young man. looks scary on the field or what? >> yeah. i guess that was the point with that makeup on. >> wouldn't want to see that coming. move over susan boyle. check out who won china's got talent playing the piano with his feet. it's the video you must see coming up next. fiber one chewy bar.

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is right for you. four minutes now the to the top of the hour. this young man brought the crowd to its feet with his feet. >> we see the piano virtuoso with no arms. ♪ >> reporter: you know how people talk about someone having the

hands of a pianist? make that the feet. you are listening to the winner of "china's got talent," talent down to the toes. 23-year-old li yu wa has no arms but disarmed the judges with his feet. ♪ you're beautiful ♪ you're beautiful >> reporter: his first appearance back in august, played an all instrumental piece. ♪ a piece that brought at least one judge to tears. after losing both arms, he learned to dress, swim, use a computer and write. so it wasn't such a stretch for him to start tickling the ivories with his toes at the age of 19. four years later, he's helped make "china's got talent" that

show's most popular. he touched a wire and got shocked while playing hide and seek. now, he's the one electrifying audiences. he told the judges at least i have a pair of perfect legs. we've seen legwork before on piano keys. from the movie "big" to a swedish stairway. designed to entice people into taking the stairs rather than the escalator. but this type of toe work led to cramps and abrasions when he first started. ♪ i don't know what you do >> reporter: a bit of irony, guess who sponsored the competition? >> head and shoulders. >> reporter: he's head and shoulders above the competition with toe that is are truly

touching. ♪ jeanne moos, cnn, new york. >> that is truly, truly remarkable. >> unbelievable. and he's just as able to almost live a long normal life. >> i can't flex without a calf cramp. >> obviously you get better and better. >> i'll keep working on my foot then. >> good luck with this. >> do it without -- finally, brett favre last night threw, here it is for you, to randy moss. oh. perfect 500th career touchdown pass. congratulations. unfortunately, not enough, though. the because the jets beat the vikings 29-20. >> because of the other play. >> another touchdown pass, this one to the jets, though. look at that. perfect. laid it right up. a good pairing for the rest of the